1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for automated transactions processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to automated systems and methods for receiving orders and processing payments, while maintaining accounting of individual accounts.
2. Background of the Invention
Filing customer orders, invoicing customer bills, and processing customer payments are among the most common business processes. Yet these simple interactions continue to be the source of errors and inefficiencies and customer dissatisfaction. Thus, there remains a need to improve the accuracy and efficiency of transaction processing and improve customer-to-business communication, decrease costs, and minimize errors. Finding a suitable transaction processing approach depends to a very large extent on the nature of the customer business interaction.
A common business that handles a large number of customer requests is the insurance industry. Such businesses receive a large number of customer requests and therefore must handle a large number of transactions swiftly and efficiently. However, much error occurs in the interaction between a customer's claim for an incident and the insurance company's ultimate payment to settle the claim. Much overhead is required for the insurance company to handle each claim individually with persons that scrutinize the customer's claim for accuracy and reliability. Thus, insurance companies incur high costs related to the costs of overhead when each customer claim must be individually considered by a representative of the insurance company before any payment is made to the customer.
In a similar manner, a reinsurance company may have to consider a large number of claims by insurance companies relating to various contracts that the insurance company has with the reinsurance company as well as keeping track of premium payments owed by each insurance company. Although the reinsurance company-to-insurance company interaction is based on trust, it is often labor intensive because of the premium and claim handling. In contrast, the customer-to-insurance company interaction is not as manually intensive because at least the premium amounts are fixed and invoices can be sent automatically.
For example, when an insurance company presents a claim to the reinsurance company, the latter routinely prepares a payment to settle the claim, often without conducting the arduous tasks of considering the details of validity and reliability of the claim. The reinsurance company thereby “trusts” that the insurance company has presented a claim that conforms to the agreement between the two companies and does not unfairly or unreasonably affects the reinsurance company. Furthermore, any such payment to settle the insurance company's claim is typically delayed by the usual delays associated with the handling of the claim and preparation and transfer of the payment. Similarly, “trust” issues exist for handling premium payments from insurance companies to the reinsurance company.
Finally, the reinsurance company typically does not conduct a proper accounting of the claim(s) that the insurance company(ies) has presented in the sense that generally there is no allocation of payments, claims, or premiums to individual contracts, but rather only at the customer (insurance company) level. Thus, there is little assurance, other than a reliance on the insurance company, that a claim is within the metes and bounds of the contract between the two businesses, and that the policy limit has not been exceeded.
Thus, there are inefficiencies within the reinsurance company's routine of handling transactions with its customer and insurance companies. Such inefficiencies potentially lead to lost revenue and inaccurate or delayed accounting.